Morphological information

Annual, erect, branched, 0.6- 1.2 m high, stems and branches striate, more or less clothed with white spreading hairs. Leaves 3- 5 foliolate, petioles 5- 7.6 cm long, sometimes armed with small distant prickles; leaflets sub sessile, 2- 4 by 1.2- 2.5 cm elliptic- obovate, obtuse, acute or acurninate, cuneate at the base, pubescent on both sides, margins crenate  dentate or sub entire. Flowers at first corymbose, elongating into a dense bracteate raceme, pedicels 1.2- 2 cm long, viscid- pubescent; bracts subsessile trifoliolate with small obovate leaflets. Sepals lanceolate, glandular- pubescent, green with white veins. Petals pale pink, 15 mm long, broadly obovate or suborbicular with a long narrow claw. Gynophore 2- 2.5 cm long. Stamens purple, inserted about 1/2 way up the gynophore. Ovary linear oblong, glandular, scated on the top of the gynophore; style almost 0. capsules 5- 9 cm by 4.5 mm, viscid- pubescent, tapering at both ends, obliquely striate. Seeds muricate, dark brown. Flowers and fruits in the summer.

Flowering                                                :

Fruiting                                                   :

History                                                    :

Parts                                                        : Whole plant.

Status                                                       : Vulnerable.

Phytochemistry

5,7- dihydroxychromone, 5- hydroxy- 3,7,4’ trimethoxyflavone and luteolin isolated from seeds; leaves of Egyptian plant afforded centaureidin,kaempferol  and 3- 0 diglucoside, quercitrin,α-and β- amyrins, taraxasterol, β- sitosterol and capric, lauric, myristic, palmitic, palmitoleic, stearic, oleic and linoleic adds.

 

Ayurvedic

The root is used in an Ayurvedic system of medicine. It is used in ascites, tumors, ulcers pain, earache, spleen enlargement and bilious fevers.                                                 

Others

The leaves are applied externally to boils to prevent the formation of pus. The expressed juice is locally used in otalgia. Half teaspoonful leaf- juice is given internally for quick relief in convulsions. Seeds are anthelmintic, sudorofic, carminative and antispasmodic. Decoction of root is useful in fevers.

 

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